The Wounded Woman. Linda Schierse Leonard
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the masculine principle (heaven) is above, and the feminine principle (earth) is below. About this relationship between the masculine and feminine, the I Ching says:
Heaven is above, drawing farther and farther away, while the earth below sinks farther into the depths. The creative powers are not in relation…. Heaven and earth are out of communion and all things are benumbed. What is above has no relation to what is below, and on earth confusion and disorder prevail.11
The I Ching goes on to say that with this constellation, mutual mistrust prevails in public life and fruitful activity is impossible because the relation between the two fundamental principles is wrong. Such is the relation between the masculine and feminine portrayed by Euripides in Iphigenia in Aulis. The disturbed relation between the masculine and feminine principles may exist within each person as well as between individuals, from the viewpoint of Jungian psychology. Every woman has a masculine side, often hidden in her unconscious psyche. Conversely, every man has a feminine side, which is frequently unconscious and unavailable to him. The task of personal growth for an individual is to become aware of this contrasexual side, to value it, and to express it consciously in the appropriate situation. When the contrasexual side is accepted and valued, it becomes a source of energy and inspiration, enabling a creative union of the masculine and feminine principles within the person as well as a creative relationship between men and women.
The feminine, when it is so devalued and suppressed, eventually becomes enraged and demands its due in primitive fashion, as Clytemnestra in revenge killed Agamemnon. The father-daughter sacrifice, then, not only affects the development of women but the inner development of men as well. Agamemnon is as injured and in despair, as unfree in life, as is his daughter, Iphigenia.
The split in the masculine between lust for beauty and lust for power and its corresponding split in the feminine between beautiful one (eternal girl) and dutiful one (armored amazon) is manifested in the drama between the warring brothers (Menelaus and Agamemnon) and the poorly related sisters (Helen and Clytemnestra). This fracture of opposites is entailed in the father-daughter wound. The masculine split into these two opposites in turn reduces the feminine ideal to beauty and duty. Both brothers use women; the one for pleasure, the other for power. Iphigenia, personifying the feminine potential, initially protests this situation, but eventually submits to the power goal.
The sacrifice is made to Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt, because Agamemnon killed one of Artemis’ stags without honoring her. In some myths Agamemnon even claimed to be a greater hunter than Artemis, who, in anger, stilled the winds and demanded Iphigenia’s sacrifice.12 Artemis was neglected by Agamemnon. Psychologically viewed, the neglect of a goddess shows that the aspect of the psyche which she represents has not been valued consciously. As a virgin goddess, Artemis symbolizes the virginal quality of being at one-in-herself, an inner attitude of feminine centeredness and independence.13 One of Artemis’ functions is to protect young girls at the age of puberty and teach them to be independent. This is what has been dishonored by Agamemnon and the prevailing cultural values. The feminine has had no effect on the masculine consciously. Ultimately, Agamemnon doesn’t listen to either his wife or daughter. Neither has he allowed the feminine independence, nor does he respect one of the greatest of goddesses, Artemis. He values only his own power, taking what he wants, e.g., Artemis’ stag. Perhaps Artemis demands this sacrifice to show Agamemnon what he loses by devaluing the feminine. To lose his daughter, a symbol of his own feminine potential, shows the consequences of his power attitude. If a man tramples over the feminine, he loses his relationship to it. So in one sense, the sacrifice to Artemis is necessary to honor this feminine independence.
Although Iphigenia in Aulis is a Greek drama written around 405 B.C., the same situation continues in our present day Western culture. The feminine is still reduced in many men’s eyes to dutiful wife or beautiful mistress, or a variation on these themes. Many women still find themselves living for men and not for themselves. Some women, in reaction, have begun to break away and realize themselves in the professions. But too often in order to break out of the puella dependency, they imitate the masculine model and so perpetuate the devaluation of the feminine. In contrast, other women who feel powerless and become enraged like Clytemnestra may overtly be dutiful to the system but covertly they express their anger; for example, by eliminating sex, having an affair in retaliation, charging up their husbands’ credit cards, drinking too much, becoming sick and hypochondriacal or depressed and suicidal, etc.
Perhaps the greatest wound the man suffers is not to acknowledge his own wound—to be unable to weep. Many fathers, under the illusion that they must always be right and self-justified in order to maintain their control and authority, and many men caught up in the power goals of control and achievement in our technological age, find themselves in this condition. They have lost the power of their tears and they have failed to honor their own young, tender, feminine side. Like Agamemnon, they have sacrificed their “inner daughter” in the name of their own power. Or like his brother, Menelaus, they may have succumbed to the power of the outer woman and have lost access to their own genuine inner femininity. In either case, the independent feminine spirit is not honored and is lost.
In many ways, Iphigenia in Aulis provides an image for today: chaos and lust for power still prevail between the sexes; spirit (the harmonic relation between the feminine and masculine principles) still has not been found to be moving effectively in the lives of most men and women. But at least questions abound, and where there are questions, there is quest, consciousness, and hope of breaking through the inadequate existing patterns.
Many modern day Iphigenias exist in our culture, suffering from a narrow vision of femininity, a narrow vision which is imbedded in the culture and frequently in personal fathers and mothers as well. These women are often angry and aware that the images allotted to women in our patriarchal culture have been influenced by men’s inadequate relation to femininity. Nevertheless, they feel trapped and helpless.
Joan, a talented and attractive woman in her forties, is an example. She grew up feeling that the ideal woman should be like Helen—most beautiful, most desirable, a woman who could attract all men by her looks and who also could be and do whatever the man needed and desired. This image, supported by the culture, came also in part from her parents. Her mother, who suffered from a split within her own femininity, was cute, youthful, and dependent (the eternal girl), yet with an overface of the independent fighter (the armored amazon) who was unable to let go and enjoy the sexual relationship with her husband. Her father, frustrated in his marriage, loved his daughter, probably too much, so the daughter most likely received his unconscious wishes for a love relationship and also his guilt feelings about this.
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